Tim Kurkoski
Forum Replies Created
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AE doesn’t have any function for snapping to the comp window, but you can create guides, and AE can snap layer bounds and anchor points to those.
Creating guides in AE is the same as in Photoshop and Illustrator. Choose Show Rulers from the View menu, then drag from the ruler bar into the comp. Then just make sure Snap to Guides is turned on in the View menu.
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I’ve seen a few tutorials on this. The COW has one that may be a good starting point:
ttp://www.creativecow.net/articles/velez_dean/glowing_stroke/index.htmlYou should also check out Dean’s site (www.theanvel.com). He posts a lot of example projects that you can dissect.
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AE doesn’t support all of the layer styles that Photoshop can create. Those it does support, it will translate them into an effect, oftentimes creating separate layers for the effect. It’s kinda weird, so your best option may be to merge the layers down if you don’t need to tweak them further.
The layer styles supported in AE (from AE Help document, “Layered Files”) are Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and Color Fill.
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For 7.0 the files are in:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\7.0So it’s pretty much the same place, but now in a separate 7.0 folder.
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It sounds like you’re using a mono-spaced font, or at the very least something is odd with the font.
There’s a couple of possible solutions (other than using a different font). One, select the character and the one in front of it, and adjust the tracking to compensate for the problem. Two, create the apostrophe character on a separate layer, adjust the spacing of the N and T (tracking, plain spacebar spaces, or additional layers) and just line everything up that way.
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Create an Action, and run it in a Batch.
If you’re not familiar with Actions and Batches, look the terms up in the Help files first, read about them, try it out, and if you have further questions post back in the forum.
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No, they actually crash cars. At least I assume they do, because that’s what they do in the movies, which is actually cheaper than paying an FX house to create a realistic 3D car crash.
To an auto company, ruining a handful of $20k-30k cars (that’s retail price, mind you) is a drop in the bucket when the overall cost of the commercial is usually well into the millions.
As for insurance, I’m sure that sort of thing is worked out, or dummies are used in the crash. Again, they’ve been doing this sort of thing in the movies for years. Google “Remy Julienne” for the first class example of stunt driving.
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Not really. The problem is that fonts describe the outlines of characters, not the strokes one would use to create them by hand.
The method I usually employ is to use the Paint Brush tool to draw the strokes (as opposed to creating masks with the Stroke effect applied, though in the end they’re basically the same thing), then setting the type layer as a matte for the paint layer, and animating the stroke’s start/end points.
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You can go to File > Export > AVI. This is a module provided by QuickTime, so just be aware that the options are pretty limited compared to the AVI options you get on a Windows machine.
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When you click on the layer, make sure you’re clicking on the layer thumbnail, and not the layer name. The Layers palette works a little differently in CS2 (you can now shift-select multiple layers, something I’ve wanted for years), so it makes a difference where you click.
In general, the steps you’re using to create an alpha channel may not be necessary. The PSD and TIFF formats carry transparency (alpha) information without having to create an explicit alpha channel. If you don’t have a background layer (just the transparency checkerboard showing) and import the PSD into After Effects, AE will catch what is supposed to be transparent. This will vary depending on the broadcast application you’re using, of couse, but TIFF and PSD are pretty standard these days, and most applications know how to read them properly.